


Blood of the Executed

by PotentialManager



Category: Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Follows pretty closesly, Rating May Change, Self-Indulgent, but there are some major changes, it's Finral simping hours, more characters will be tagged as they're added to the story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:49:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26729200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PotentialManager/pseuds/PotentialManager
Summary: "Do you ever get tired of running?""Sometimes.""Then why don't you change that?"Sometimes, one doesn't realize that big problems could have such simple solutions- too focused to step back and see the big picture. Maybe all it took was one small nudge to help her into the direction that need to be in. So she could finally be the person she always wanted to be.
Relationships: Finral Roulacase/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 4





	Blood of the Executed

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! Welcome! Before we start off, I do wanna say I started writing this around the start of the demon arc, so later down the road there may be stuff that doesn't completely align with the show, so we'll just say this is canon divergence fanfic  
> Also, Finral deserves to be more happy and deserves more love.

“Are you sure there isn’t anything else left to try?” The room we sat in was dim and windowless with us occupying the only furniture in the room; him, one chair, and me, one bed. A true solitary room.

“Afraid not,” he answered me, “At this point, until we can find more information about curses as a whole, we’ve done all we can. Plus, like I’ve said before, it wouldn’t hurt to help your own mental health to see if you can work through this curse without magic interference. Take Captain Roselei for example; her family was cursed and she rose above it by herself.”

Instead of responding right away, I took time to look around the almost barren room. I had been staying here for the better part of a year; it didn’t feel right to be forced out of it when I wasn’t even ready to face the world again. However, if he said there was nothing else they could do for me, then there was no point in me staying anyways.

“I will… try,” I said slowly, “Your Majesty.”

“Please, Natasha,” he lightly laughed, “How many times have I told you that you can call me Julius.”

“Right, yes; my apologies, Julius. I’m assuming I’m good to go then?”

“Yep, Marx has let Captain Yami know that you’ll be returning later this evening and he’s waiting at the entrance for you with your broom. But, Natasha-” He helped me to my feet “-I’m serious about you working on yourself. I want you to be able to hang tight until we make a breakthrough in our research. Who knows, maybe being around your squad for longer will help you!”

“I will try my best.”

“I believe in you.”

  
  


Marx and I shared short pleasantries before I took to the skies to head back to base. I think Marx was always secretly happy whenever I left because that meant Julius would stop spending time focusing on me and would get back to doing his actual work. Which, that never happened, but me leaving probably gave Marx a small sense of false hope. Julius always had a knack in investing too much into learning about new types of magic and when I went crying to him about my curse, it was no different then either. Periodically going back every time the voices became too much to bear.

It was already close to sunset when I took off, meaning I wasn’t going to make it back to base until after nightfall; I hoped that it wouldn’t be too late to see everyone. Julius had mentioned at some point during my stay that Yami had recruited two new members, so it would’ve also been nice to meet them before the next morning. 

Knowing Yami (and the rest of the Black Bulls for that matter), though, the two newbies probably had no idea who I even was.

I steeled myself at the door once I made it back to base. Why was I so nervous? The squad never cared that I would be gone for long periods of time before, why would they now? Just because we got a couple of new squadmates? Unlikely. And the two were so new, they wouldn’t dare say anything about never meeting me beforehand. Mentally slapping myself in the face, I shook away the thoughts and opened the door.

“Hello,” I called out, taking a look in the empty main room, “I’m back! Anyone home?” I snooped around the room for a bit before realizing no one was nearby. I was about to pull out my communicator to get a hold of Yami before I was stopped by yelling and shouting coming from the back outside part of the base.

I made my way to the back door and carefully peeked out to see who was out there. I saw my whole squad, including two who I didn’t recognized (probably the new kids), merrily drinking and eating a banquet amount of food. My heart started to race and quickly turned to hide behind the door once I realized what was going on.  _ Damn it _ ! Of course I had to come home right in the middle of everyone celebrating something and have every worry come flooding back into me.

_ No, no,  _ I calmed myself,  _ everything is fine. No one will care that you’re crashing their party. You’re a part of this squad! Get a grip on yourself! _

I took a deep breath, and turned, ready to make my way outside, but a voice stopped me in my tracks.

“I’m going in to grab more booze!” Vanessa walked in almost as quickly as her voice reached my ears, nearly running into me in the process.

“Hey, who the hell-” she started to say, but stopped once she realized it was me, “Oh my god! Tasha, is that you? I’ve missed you so much!” She almost toppled me over when she pulled me into a huge hug, giving me a good whiff on how much alcohol she had to drink so far.

“I’ve missed you too, Vanessa,” I said, practically dizzy with how fast she was talking and moving about, “I was actually dischar-”

“Did you just get home,” she cut me off (yep, definitely drunk), “That means you haven’t seen anyone else yet! Or met the two newbies! Oh, you’re going to love them; Asta is such a ray of sunshine.” I didn’t even have enough time to react before she started pulling me on the arm to follow her outside.

“Everyone,” she called out to the others in a singsong voice, “Guess who’s back?”

“Natasha!” Charmy screeched, quickly running up to me to cling onto my leg, but still chewing on a meat leg.

“H-hey Charmy.” I stuttered out, arms flailing to keep myself upright from the sudden added weight.

“Hey Natasha,” Luck clung onto the arm that Vanessa wasn’t holding, seemingly popping out of nowhere, “Now that your back, do you want to battle?”

“Maybe later.” Jeeze, I forgot how clingy those two were.

“Uh, Vanessa,” a voice unknown to me piped up, “Who’s this?”

“Oh right, you guys haven’t met yet.” Vanessa giggled, draggining me (with Luck and Charmy still clinging on) closer to where the two new members sat. “Tasha, this is Asta and Noelle. Asta, Noelle, this is Natasha, she’s my sister and your Vice-Captain.”

“Vice-Captain?!” Both of them exclaimed. So, I was right. Everyone did fail to mention me.

“Oh, right,” Yami’s voice from the other side of the table caught our attention, “Pipsqueaks, this is your Vice-Captain. She hasn’t been around because…” 

I gulped, unsure of what he was going to say. Only him and Vanessa knew that I was going to see Julius to try and dispel the curse that I had. The others didn’t even know about the curse, I always just told them that Yami was sending me on a mission whenever I had to leave, but I had no idea if Yami was corroborating with me on that.

“Because I sent her on a top-secret mission that we can’t talk about,” he finished, allowing me to let out the breath that I was holding in. Not exactly the most subtle lie, but no one ever really questioned him on anything anyways, “It must’ve slipped my mind to tell you about her since she wasn’t here. Anyways, show her respect and blah, blah, blah, all that stuff.”

“Thanks, Captain Yami.” I smiled through clenched teeth as he greedily went back to eating his food. He may be a respectable man, but he sure knew how to get on people’s nerves.

“You guys seemed surprised that Tasha here is our Vice-Captain,” Magna leaned into the conversation, “Who did you think it was anyways?” 

“I just assumed we didn’t have one.” Noelle shrugged.

“I thought it was Finral, considering how much he goes on about being our superior.” Asta answered.

“I think I’d kill myself if I was Yami’s Vice-Captain,” Finral laughed in response, “I can barely handle being his transportation sometimes. I don’t know how she does it, quite honestly.”

“Oh, it’s not that bad…” I nervously trailed off, unable to look him in the eye. I didn’t know why, but whenever I came back after being gone for a long period of time, I became a stuttering, nervous wreck around Finral.

“Oh, right, I totally forgot I was going back to grab more drinks,” Vanessa then giggled again, “Here, sit right here, Tasha-” she plopped in a seat in-between Finral and Asta (sans Luck and Charmy thankfully) “-catch up and get to know each other, I’ll grab you something to drink too!”

“And I’ll get you something to eat,” Charmy cheered, “You must be starving after such a long mission!”

“That sounds amazing.” I patted her on the head before we ran off. When I turned back around to face the table, I caught eyes with Finral, causing me to force down the embarrassment that I knew was trying to show itself on my cheeks.

_ Why? Why do I feel like I’m always restarting with everyone each time I come back? _

“So, Natasha,” Asta thankfully pulled me from my, soon-to-be, spiraling thoughts, “How really  _ is  _ it being the Vice-Captains of the Black Bulls? You probably get to do a whole bunch of cool stuff that us regular squadmates don’t get to!”

“Uhh…” I trailed off, nervously smiling. Honestly, being a Vice-Captain (at least Yami’s Vice-Captain…) wasn’t all that glamorous. It mostly meant that I got to deal with all of Yami’s paperwork and I was the one that usually had to go smooth things over with the other Magic Knight Captains and the Wizard King when our squad did something stupid. Hell, I was only promoted to Vice-Captain because I was the first one that Yami saw after Julius told him he had to have one! Not like I was going to tell Asta that right off that bat, though.

“Well, being a Vice-Captain means I do a lot more solo missions,” I explained, “And you know… important...stuff…”

“Oh, woah,” he practically yelled, “That’s so cool! I wanna go on a solo mission some day!”

Well, at least he didn’t notice that I didn’t really have anything to say about being a Vice-Captain…

“You gotta get those arms fixed up first before you think about stuff like that,” I pointedly looked at the bandages that surrounded him, “What happened anyways? Mission gone wrong?”

“Oh… yeah, something like that…”

“Well, I’m no healer, but I know a few healing spells, I can have a go at it for you.”

“Ah, no that’s not necessary… I, uh, I’m working on getting them fixed.”

Something in his voice told me that he wasn’t telling the complete truth. I opened my mouth to tell him that while I knew he didn’t know me all that well, I still had an obligation to help as his Vice-Captain, but a head of blue hair sitting past Asta and Magna stopped those words from coming out, instead what I said was,

“Wait a minute, who are you?”

Asta and Magna turned their heads to look at the person I was addressing.

“O-oh,” she cowered and hid her face with her hands once she realized she was the one I was talking to, “I-I’m Grey.”

“Grey? Weren’t you like… huge last time I saw you?”

“P-please, s-s-stop looking at me! It’s making me too nervous.”

I shrugged my shoulders. Weirder things had happened in their squad before, it just became something to be used to. I focused back on Asta to continue what I was going to say, but his expression told me I should let the topic go. 

I’d find out sooner or later anyways.

  
  


The night ended up being a blast. The alcohol Vanessa was practically shoving down my throat helped with that as well. Everyone showing off tricks, telling jokes… it felt nice feeling like I hadn’t been gone at all. At least, until Asta decided to call it a night.

“I’m pretty beat guys, I think I’m gonna head to bed.”

“You sure? Okay…” Noelle said, confused.

“Alright Asta, goodnight.” Finral added softly. Everyone stayed silent until he was out of sight.

“Does he seem off to tonight?” Vanessa asked no one in particular.

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him go to bed this early.” Magna commented

“Um, guys,” Finral spoke up, causing everyone to turn towards him, “I have some bad news. Asta won’t be able to use his arms again… ever.”

“What?!” Everyone shouted in response.

“What kind of magic would make that happen?” I asked. 

“Ancient curse magic. It’s incurable, even for the best healer in the country.”

“Poor Asta…” Noelle trailed off.

“He must be devastated…” Magna looked back to where Asta had left.

_ Curse magic, huh? _

There were only a few moments of silence before loud shouting coming from the woods broke through it. Alarmed, we all took off towards the shouting, but stopped short when we realized it was just Asta who was screaming over a cliff.

“I’m never giving up! You hear me! You may keep pushing me down, but I’ll fight with my feet if I have to!”

“That’s our Asta.” Vanessa whispered.

“He just never quits, does he?” Finral mused.

Seeing Asta yell about how even though the world was out to get him, he always found a way to become stronger despite how hard the obstacles were, and him losing his arms wasn’t going to be the problem that made him quit, struck a chord inside me. Here I was, constantly running away when the world scared me while he never backed down. Maybe what Julius said about being with my squad had some merit…

  
  


The next morning, I made sure I woke up early enough to catch up with Captain Yami, but before anyone else started to filter into the main room.

“Captain Yami, a moment, if you will?” I asked him once he came in.

“This early in the morning? Can it at least wait until after breakfast?”

“Afraid not.”

“Fine,” he sighed, sitting down in the chair across from where I sat, “What is it?”

“From how everyone talks about Asta, I don’t think I’d be wrong to assume he’s been a positive force in their lives. Is this true?”

“That would be… a fair assumption.” He took a drag from his cigarette.

“I haven’t even been around him for that long, but his never-give-up attitude has already affected me in a way I never thought possible. I’m sure he’s done the same for everyone else on this team, right?” He pondered my question for a moment.

“He’s probably been the best damn thing to happen to this squad. Couldn’t imagine the team without him quite honestly.”

“Thank you, sir. That’s all I needed to hear. I may not know him, but it’s obvious that everyone on the squad cares deeply for him, that means as Vice-Captain I must do everything in my power to help him out.”

“Are you sure,” he asked, obviously picking up at what I was hinting at, “You wouldn’t even go back there for yourself. You’re going to face your greatest fear for some pipsqueak you barely know?”

“At the end of the day, the Black Bulls are my family. If they’re hurting that much for him then I must do what I can to help… And as far as my case goes, she would never be able to stop a curse that’s tied to our magic, but I know she has the ability to help Asta. All I ask is that you don’t tell anyone where I’m off too, I’d rather not give them a heart attack.”

Yami smirked, silently telling my something that I didn’t understand, before nonchalantly yawning and saying, 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. As long as you don’t tell anyone what I told you. Don’t want them thinking I’ve gone soft or anything.”

“Of course, sir.” I lightly laughed and made my way to the front door.

_ Now only one more person to deal with… _

I opened the door and caught Vanessa trying to sneakily take off on her broom, just like I thought she would.

“Going somewhere?” My question stopped her in her tracks.

“H-hey, Sis,” she said nervously, trying to hide her brook behind her back, “I was just.. Uh.. heading to t-the market-”

“You don’t need to lie,” I cut her off, “I know where you’re going and I’m going with you.”

“How did you know?” She became serious, realizing there was no point in trying to continue her lie.

“Because I also know that she’s the only one who can heal Asta and I know your dumb enough to try and trick her by youself to escape. You’re gonna need some back up.

“Natasha, no- I- you just got back. This can go badly very quickly.”

“Which is exactly why you need me with you. Plus, I can’t keep running from my fears anymore. I want to be a Vice-Captain that you guys can be proud of.”

“Alright,” Vanessa sighed with a small smile, “To the Forest of Witches then."


End file.
